First bowfishing competition at Table Rock Lake

Apr. 3, 2013

Written by

About this weekend’s bowfishing tournament

Starting at 2 p.m. Saturday at Long Creek Marina, visitors interested in trying a bowfishing rig will have a chance to shoot at target carp and gar from an elevated platform over a big tank of water. Free. There will also be a casting competition, a Daisy BB gun range, free food and gift giveaways. Competitors also have the chance to win cash prizes, bowfishing gear and a new Tracker bowfishing boat (minus the airboat fan). Winners are based on the heaviest 20 fish they bring in, with a separate prize for the largest fish of the tournament. The tournament begins at 7 p.m. Saturday and ends at 7 a.m. Sunday, with the official weigh-in running until about 10 a.m., when the winners will be announced. The harvested fish will soon become food for alligator-snapping turtles raised by businessman John Richards, who runs Loggerhead Acres Turtle Farm in Strafford. Richards supplies alligator snappers, which have been known to grow to more than 200 pounds, to aquariums and turtle enthusiasts across the country.

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Bowfishing takes center stage this weekend at Table Rock Lake’s Long Creek Marina when Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats hosts the first U.S. Open Bowfishing Championship on Saturday night into Sunday morning.

As of Monday, 112 boats from 24 states had registered for the tournament, a competitive event in many Southern states but a relative newcomer to Missouri. John Paul Morris said if this event proves successful he hopes it will become an annual Missouri tournament.

“My dad says bowfishing in Missouri has that feel of the beginning days of competitive bass fishing,” Morris said. “We’re wanting to get the word out about the sport, get people out to try it. It’s not as easy as it looks, and it has a beneficial impact on our lakes because it removes a lot of carp that muddy up the water, and it helps improve the habitat for game fish.”

Mike Allen, a Missouri Conservation Department fisheries biologist assigned to Table Rock Lake, agrees. MDC officials plan to observe the tournament to see how many fish and what kind of “rough” species the night hunters take. In Missouri, game fish like bass, trout, catfish and walleye can’t be harvested by bow.

But large numbers of rough fish — carp, suckers, drum, gar, buffalo, bluegill and carpsuckers — can be taken by bow and arrow, as outlined in MDC’s Summary of Fishing Regulations 2013.

To give an idea what MDC thinks of carp, the rules let archers take any number of bighead carp, common carp, grass carp, silver carp and goldfish — yes goldfish — from Missouri waters. Bowfishing does require a valid Missouri fishing license.

“Bowfishing is helpful to the game fishery and the lake, as far as water quality is concerned,” Allen said.

“The common carp and grass carp, in fact, all the carps we have here, are nonnative species that originated in Europe or Asia. In Missouri, they can control underwater vegetation, but if there’s too many carp they will clean out all the vegetation, and then the sport fish don’t have as much cover, especially for their young.”

(Page 2 of 2)

Allen said bowfishing is an effective way to control carp, which reproduce prolifically and can grow to substantial size. Grass carp are the among the largest carp species in Missouri, and the state-record fish taken by bow is a 71-pound, 4-ounce monster shot in 1999 at Lake Showme in northeast Missouri.

In 2011 at Lake of the Ozarks, an angler snagged a bighead carp weighing 106 pounds.

Morris said he has taken several 50-pounders with an arrow and wouldn’t be surprised to see a bowfisherman come in from Table Rock with a 60-plus-pounder this weekend.

“We’ve been watching the water temperature, and it came up after the warm spell we had this weekend,” he said. “The warmer the water gets, the more likely carp are to move into the shallows where they spawn.”

Unusual equipment for night hunters

Unlike typical bass-fishing rigs, boats designed for bowfishing typically have an otherworldy look on the water at night. Morris had Tracker Marine build a custom bowfishing boat for him, complete with rows of powerful floodlights set into the sides of the hull and a flat shooting platform on the bow where archers stand and watch for fish.

Seen from shore, the rows of brilliant lights illuminating an arc of water below might cause some to think a UFO has dropped in for a visit.

When water gets too skinny for an electric trolling motor, Morris fires up a three-bladed airplane propeller on the stern and operates the boat like a Florida Everglades airboat.

“When I pull up to a gas station while towing the boat, I do get a lot of questions,” Morris said. “They always want to know if I’m going alligator hunting, and how fast will it go?”

Morris plans to compete this weekend, and his boat will be on display, along with other competitor boats with unusual modifications to make them effective bowfishing platforms.

Like most outdoor sports, top-quality gear and equipment can get expensive, but Morris emphasized that beginners can get into bowfishing relatively inexpensively.

“Springtime is a great time to try bowfishing,” he said. “Beginning in April the water warms up, the fish move in to the shallows, and there’s a great opportunity to shoot from the bank if you don’t have a boat.

“You can buy a good midrange bowfishing rig that’s all set up for about $350, but if you’ve already got a bow, $100 gets you a retriever reel you can attach to your bow. These retrievers will work with any kind of bow — recurve or compound.”